The Pericardium Channel

The Heart and Pericardium are Two Aspects of One Organ

The basis of this argument is that the way the Heart and Pericardium are discussed in the Nei Jing clearly suggests that their division into two organs was not true in all the schools of acupuncture that the Nei Jing is a summation of. For example in CH. 2 of Ling Shu – when the Heart channel Shu transport points are listed, they are all Pericardium Shu transport points on the Pericardium channel. So clearly for that author, the Heart channel was then what we would call today the Pericardium channel. Nei Jing Ling Shu Chapter 71 – 12,13 also states that the Heart channel Shu transport points are all points which we today would identify as Pericardium Shu. It seems like a strong reiteration of the idea presented in Ling Shu 2. In another listing in the Nei Jing, the Yuan Source point of the Pericardium P. 7 Da Ling 大 陵 is listed as the Yuan Source point for the Heart. This idea is even expressed in Nan Jing 66, where the Heart channel Yuan source point is listed as Da Ling 大 陵, which we would call P. 7. While the modern day Heart channel is referred to as simply the ‘Shao Yin channel’. From a six phase point of view Pericardium and Heart have to be different channels. Granted much of the Nei Jing is devoted to promulgating a 6 phase, 12 channel system but there are strong suggestions of variant views that would argue for the fundamental unity of the Heart and Pericardium channel.

Nei Jing Ling Shu 41 – 2 – says that the ten Stems move through arms, and the 12 Branches move through the legs – This lends credence to the idea that there are 10 bilateral arm channels and 12 leg channels. Here we see again the suggestion that the ancient heart channel was the modern pericardium channel. Add to this idea the ubiquity, throughout the Nei Jing, and to this day, in modern acupuncture, of the term Wu Zang Liu Fu 五 臟 六 腑. This is the term Five Zang and Six Fu. CH. 2 of Ling Shu references the 25 Shu -transport points of the Five Zang and the 36 Shu-transport points of the Six Fu. 25 and 36 are reiterations as 5X5 and 6X6. So clearly there is a re-emphasis on five Zang channels. Clearly we frequently see in the Nei Jing a Heart channel / Pericardium channel conceptual fusion. Another piece of evidence that points to this ambiguity is the proliferation of names for the Pericardium.

It is interesting to examine the Ma Wang Dui medical documents –the Zu Bi and Yin Yang – Shi Yi Mo Jiu Jing. Bear in mind that these are extant medical documents which are at least contemporaneous historically with the writing of the Nei Jing, or which may predate the Nei Jing. Both these documents reflect an eleven channel system with five channels on the arms. The pericardium channel is not present but the heart channel seems to overlap the territory of the current Pericsrdium channel.

It is interesting to note that eight of the nine Pericardium channel points were first described in the Nei Jing, perhaps suggesting their greater antiquity, whereas only three of the nine Heart channel points are referenced in the Nei Jing. It is interesting to me that both the Heart and Pericardium channels have nine points, as if they are replications of each other. To me the modern Heart channel points feel like a later interloper, created with 9 points to match the now- pericardium channel, but the points are placed seemingly abstractly. Where we can see the palpatory utility of the pericardium channel points, the ½ cun distinctions of location from Ht4 to Heart 7 seem more like abstractions rather than like the generally physically strong reflexes of the majority of points on the channels. It is also interesting to speculate on the origin of the idea that you should not needle the heart channel. Clearly this idea was prevalent in a number of Chinese traditions. The Nei Jing clearly points to the idea that the Heart channel has no Transport points. Literally though, this passage just says that the channel has no ‘Shu’ 俞 This means maybe that the channel has no transport points, or more generically, that the channel has no acupuncture points! Or more abstractly, that the channel has no transporting of subtle substances (this is the original meaning of Shu).

“The heart . . . is the Great Yang in the middle of yang” 為陽中之太陽
Su Wen 5 – 173:

the Qi of Thunder communicates with the Heart 雷氣通於心

and Nei Jing Ling Shu 71 – 12 says
“The Heart is the great master of the five Zang and Six Fu, the abode of the Jing and Shen, strong and immovable, evil cannot appear here”
心者，五藏六府之大主也，精神之所舍也，其藏堅固，邪弗能容也。

Ling Shu 2 says that the Heart expresses itself through the 5 Shu points of the Pericardium channel

The Heart channel has no Yuan Source point. The Yuan Source point of the Pericardium P. 7 Da Ling 大 陵is listed as the Yuan Source point for the Heart

—– T cell apoptosis in the thymus and the discrimination of Self / not-Self

—– Connection to hyper and hypo immunity

– Pericardium as an organ of Fire

—– Catching the overflow of the Imperial Fire according to TCM theory

—– —– Function of Chen 臣

—– Mediating and Disseminating the Imperial Fire –

—– —– function of Shi 使

—– Pericardium as Xin Zhu 心 主– Xin Zhu as ministerial Fire 相 火

—– Relationship of Ministerial fire to Yuan source Qi and the Ming Men Fire – see Nan Jing 66

—– Pericardium as the final ascension point of the Ministerial Fire (Xiang Huo) after it has moved from Right kidney – ming men to Liver and Gall Bladder to Pericardium. This is a pathway of Shao Yang heat transmission sometimes called 相火妄动 ‘xiang huo wang dong’ ministerial fire frenetically moving

—– Pericardium as mediator and protector of the Heart in instances of rapid invasion of pathogenic Heat